#panoptic studios

”IT’SCHRISTMASPEOPLEGETUPNOWSOONICAN’TWAIT”

”PISS OFF WE’RE STILL SLEEPING!”

“THERE’S NO NEED TO BE SUCH A GRINCH! IT’S CHRISTMAS!!!”

“YEAH! YOU WONT GET ANY PRESENTS IF YOU’RE SO GRUMPY ALL THE TIME!”

“…I swear you people…”

Of course there never was any way Christmas in PANOPTIC building could be spent peacefully. Even now, when sun was just barely up, a crew of young editors paraded through halls, dragging more or less willing co-workers along. At the moment they we’re kicking poor Amber’s door down.

“W-WAIT! WHAT IS GOING OOOOOON”

Some people just haven’t had as much time to get used to this behavior than others.

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“RISE AND SHINE, JAME-“

Erin froze, hand still on the door handle. This was indeed James’ room, but on the bed, under the blanket, two human forms could be seen. Two. Why was there two people there? She couldn’t remember anyone visiting James yesterday…

That’s when sleepy Lucas raised his head.

“MmmmmErin what is it?” Lucas had barely gotten few words out of his mouth when his head hit the pillow again. Woman in the doorway continued gaping like a fish, then slowly backed out and closed the door. It was…Lucas. Lucas in James’ room. Sleeping in James’ bed. With James. What? What would she do now? Where’s Kay? Where’s Liv? She needs to tell them, right? Yes, she should. Of course.

“Guys! I saw Jam-mmmpppphhhh-“

Someone had slammed a hand over her mouth in the middle of sentence.

“Don’t. Shout.”

Erin managed to wrestle the hand away, and spun around. The one behind her was no other than their dearest boss, Steph.

“Now, before you do anything such as shout about what you just saw, think about the toilets in men’s bathroom. More specifically, think about how in the need of cleaning they are. Merry Christmas.”

And with that she walked back to the room she had come out from, leaving Erin alone in the hallway. And it should be noted that it wasn’t her room, which would be in the end of the hall. It was…May’s?

“What is going on here…?”

“Erin, weren’t you supposed to get James? Where is he?”

Kay and Liv appeared behind the corner, dragging a group of tired editors behind them. They couldn’t miss the look of shock on their friend’s face.

“Erin, you okay?”

The 2nd floor bathroom, the one closest to Steph’s office, seemed quite ordinary. Except that everyone was convinced the particular bathroom was haunted. That’s why no one had used it forever. You’d think it would mostly annoy Steph herself, it being that close but apparently not useable. Both she never paid any mind to it. Everyone accepted it. Who are they to question the boss anyway.

Few months ago:

Steph was going through some of the paperwork regarding their next job, when May had walked in, sullen look on her face. Without a word, the redhead sat down on the chair in front of Steph’s desk.

“Is something wrong, May?” Steph asked. “Weren’t you supposed to be working on that group project with Liv, Lucas and James?” Personally, Steph doubted the effectiveness of the said dynamic, mainly because now James constantly was between two teasing forces. It seemed that May wasn’t in the mood to torment the poor boy today, though.

The redhead leaned back on her chair, hands crossed behind her neck, staring at the ceiling.

“The amount of romantic AND sexual tension just was too much for my liking. Needed to take a little break.”  Balancing the chair on two legs, she started swaying quietly, eyes still glued to ceiling but not paying attention to anything particular there. “I’ll get back in a moment.”

“I suppose that’s better than trying to scare James to finally act. Whatever he and Lucas are going to do is their business. Let things progress naturally.”

The front legs of the chair slammed back on the floor. “And locking them in a closet is not that, huh?”

“No, it’s not. Please don’t make me tie you up until this is over.” The moment Steph met the other’s eyes after saying that, she knew it had been a mistake to open her mouth. The corner of May’s mouth rose into a small sly smirk. She leaned slightly towards Steph, chin resting on her palm.

“So thaaaaat’s what you’re into, boss? A thoughtful headtilt. “I guess it comes with office. I remember few times at the last place when…” Steph reached over the desk, covering May’s mouth with her hand before she could continue.

“Please don’t. I’m still trying to get rid of those images in my head. No need to bring them back.”

The redhead gently pried the hand off her mouth, holding it so Steph couldn’t pull it back. “Boss, you can tell me. I rarely get you alone like this. And even then you don’t talk to me about things. Is there any cute girls or guys you’d like to ‘tie up’? I promise not to tell anyone. Cross my heart.”

Steph was at loss of words. She was always focused on her work, let alone the fact that she had been the one to lecture David for having a relationship employee. So she kept such thoughts away from her mind. Most of the time.

“…” May looked disappointed when she heard no answer. Still, confused and slightly flustered Steph was enough to make her day. Perhaps enough to help her get through watching some more of James looking like a puppy with tail between legs. Last thing she did before letting the other woman’s hand go was to softly kiss her knuckles. The reaction was instant, and Steph almost fell off her chair when pulling back so quickly. And with that, May got up, ready to leave. This was exactly why she had come here of all places.

“I’ll get back to work now. And don’t worry, I’ll let them get off easy today, I promise, as thanks for letting me stay here for a moment.”

 ‘She thinks she can just come here, tease me and walk away…HELL NO!’ Steph jumped up from the chair, went around the desk, and before May even knew what was going on, had grabbed her wrist, spun her around and pushed down. And so May found herself laying back against the desk, Steph’s arms caging her in. It was May’s turn to be flustered, face matching her hair better by every second.

Steph’s hand slowly moved from the tabletop to the zipper of the sleeveless hoodie May wore, starting to pull it down. “ahahahahaSTEPHthat’snotevenfunnystopit-“ The woman under Steph started to squirm around more as the zipper opened, revealing the t-shirt under it.  May tried to push the other woman  away, but only got her arms pinned over her head. Quite easily too, even if Steph could only use one hand.

“You asked a question and now I’m not even allowed to answer it? That’s pretty mean, May.”

“Stephstephsteph just think about this, ‘kay? There’s no lock on the door and if someone comes in…” This made Steph stop. She wondered about it for a moment. She didn’t exactly want anyone to barge in… Then an idea came to her mind, and she slowly grinned.

“No it doesn’t. But the bathroom across the hall does.”

“WAIT WHAT NO ah-”------------------------------------

“EI HELVETTI!!”

Lucas almost dropped what he was carrying when he heard a loud scream. “What the….”

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Friday night. The official pizza and movie night. As weird as having a movie night at company building might sound to some, this was also their home. From the three floors the building housed, 1st had the cafeteria, the “waiting room”, and the common area where the employees usually hanged out while not at  work. 2nd was for the offices and work arenas. Full of desk and chairs, ergonomics as priority. And still, every night few people took their laptops with them to their rooms in 3rd floor to continue some work, effectively ruining their backs lounging on their beds.

As said before, the 3rd floor was solely for the staff to use. Private living quarters, large bathrooms and the lounge, where they happened to be right now. Several large bowls of popcorn spread across, so everyone would have some easily within their reach, the dreaded empty pizza boxes and soda cans (which Steph made a mental note of forcing everyone to clean before going to bed.) Hell, there even was several cans of beer, cider and long drinks around (another mental note; question Sophie and May at morning.).

After the first movie, A-budget action flick, had ended someone had switched it to a romantic comedy. In their language it meant socializing, and occasional cuddle time. That said, Erin was resting her head on Kay’s lap, latter sliding her fingers through dark curls, occasionally receiving appreciative noises from the other. Few of the girls, namely Amber, Ellie and Anii had gathered huge pillows around them. As they hadn’t been with the group as long as most, they tended to stick together whenever possible.  Basically, everyone was doing their best to relax after a long week.

Steph flopped down to her back on one of the large pillows. It was awfully comfy, but there was no way she’s be able to doze off when a finger almost immediately started poking at her ribs through the shirt fabric.

“Seriously May, why?”

“Mmmmmm…?”

The readhead slowly raised her head to look at Steph’s face. She was laying on her stomach, chin leaning on her hand, while she was still poking at Steph with the other one. The look in her eyes pretty much screamed boredom. The poking turned into sliding fingertips up and down the Asian’s side. Steph’s sat up, which finally made May pull back, hand starting to search for popcorn bowl instead.

Lucas, who was sitting on a couch, pushed said bowl closer to the redhead, then smirking to the younger man next to him. “The resemblance to a puppy is amazing ain’t it, James?”  The  remark causing a handful of popcorn to fly into his direction.  May rose to her knees, then up on her feet. Lazily stretching, she threw a look of amusement and leaned closet to two men, lightly patting James’s hair.

“That’s rich considering we have a walking and talking definition of puppy love right here.”

“Hey!” James began to protest, trying to slap away the hand messing his hair, but the redhead had already pulled her hand back, snatched the popcorn bowl, and was walking away.

“…I don’t know what she means…” James was left to mumble.

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There was a small balcony on the third floor, overlooking the courtyard. That was one of May’s favourite places. And so Steph was not surprised to find the woman there.  Eyes closed, sitting cross-legged on the wooden bench, snacks forgotten on the floor next to her. Steph also sat down the bench. There was a couple of minutes of comfortable silence.

“The cool wind feels nice. Reminds me a little of home. It’s a lot warmer here, ya know?” The redhead whispered. Being from Finland, she had come a long way to be here with them.

“I think we might get some snow this winter. At least that's what they say.” Even without looking at her, May could tell the other woman was smiling, and she leaned towards her, cheek resting on Steph’s shoulder.

It was not about gender equality when in the middle of all these strong-willed women there’s only two guys. And there was no reason for anyone to complain how they had only one shower compared to women’s two (+that one which everyone believes to be haunted. We do not talk about that bathroom) And since there was only them two, they rarely even stumbled to each other there. And both Lucas and James were just okay with that.

James didn’t know that much about the older man. He knew Lucas had been working in Project ECHO from the start, and later followed Steph into Panoptic. And he seemed happy like that. James also knew Lucas was ridiculously talented, but still not stuck-up or vain like some editors James had encountered before being accepted here.

And well… to be honest, while not mean by any length , Lucas seemed to enjoy teasing the younger man. Sometimes he would purposefully try to edge James off just to see his reaction. Sometimes he’d point out those little things he liked about his editing, leaving the younger just a step away from blushing. James had no idea why exactly he did it, but as it was mainly harmless, he didn’t really mind. (even Kay and Erin’s giggles or May’s comments of it made him flustered. Steph would just shake her head and smile the way she always did when watching her “kids”.)

Yes. James liked it here.

—————————————————————————-

It must have been closer to eleven pm. when James finally managed to finish today’s segment of his work. Mainly a routine job, nothing too challenging, but sitting at his desk by a window the whole day had left him feeling quite nasty. Nothing that a quick shower wouldn’t fix though. So he headed towards men’s bathroom. He had a clean towel and his shampoos and soaps in a locker in the changing room, so he didn’t even need to take the longer route to get to his room first.

He opened the bathroom door, lost in his thoughts about next day’s work. Since he had done some overtime earlier, he’d be able to take a little easier now. Hopefully…

James was unnaturally lost in his thoughts, enough so that he missed the messy pile of clothes on one of the benches, and the faint sound of water running nearby. He stripped, grabbed his necessities from the locker, and walked to the door that lead to the showers. And only then, after opening the door and finally raising his head, he saw what he should had noticed a long ago.

There in one of the showers, under hot spray of water, was Lucas. Naked. Rinsing shampoo off his hair. He was side towards James, so it didn’t take him long to notice the other male, and turn a bit.

“Hi James! Finally finished your work for today, huh?” He flashed a small grin towards the younger, then turning his attention back to not getting shampoo into his eyes. Nasty stuff, would itch like hell.

That smallest of movements had given James quite a nice view of the blond’s chest and stomach. ‘What the hell, we’re doing the same job, right? Does he work out when no one’s around or…?’ Fighting the urge to cover his reddening face ‘It’s just the sudden heat and humidity of shower.’ James walked towards one of the showers, as far away from Lucas as possible. He made sure the water temperature was fine, and stepped under the spray. And hell, it felt good. Video editing is not the best thing that there was for your body.

Lucas had finished by now, and turned the water off. He looked around, noticing he must had left his towel to the changing room.

“ ’kay, I’m off then. We’ll see at morning” he called out to James, who mumbled something incomprehensible and nodded.

‘Don’t you goddamn dare to turn around now, James. I’m serious. I’m gonna beat our head against this tile wall if you do that.’ Pesky inner voices encouraging him to look over his shoulder. There was no reason or need for him to see Lucas’s ass for gods sake. When the door closed, James let his forehead bump against the wall, letting out a defeated sounding sigh.

“OH AND-“

The door opened again, making James jump slightly and almost fall over. And there he was, trying his best to keep his balance by hanging from the showerhead. Lucas merely looked amused.

“I heard we’ll have pancakes. Try to be up early. Well, G’night again” And then he was gone.

‘That went well, didn’t it? Oh, and you’re red all over. Just thought you might know.’

‘SHUT UP!’